CHATS ET CHIENS, GHATES KAI SKILA

How can you make “it's raining cats and dogs” sound much, much more interesting than it really is?

Some of the villagers are thinking that it is about time that we all start building an Ark! The waterfall in the back yard has started up again which keeps us awake and our gum boots are earning their keep. The up side to this is that the temperature is not too cold – if it was, we would be under several feet of snow.

In spite of all this, we had an interesting diversion this week on the arrival of our French friends from Marseilles who we met last Easter. At the time, they were organising for their plot of land to be blessed by the village Papa prior to laying the foundations for their new house. We were able to supply cold water and cups of English tea from time to time after they had worn themselves out pruning their olive trees and getting the necessary permits and documents to start work. Since that time, we passed the shell of their new house most days on the road out of the village and were wondering why we had not seen them again for the next stage of the work. On Monday, Kimon had a dream about them and was telling me about it, saying how strange it was because he was dreaming in French, which was odd, but we pressed on with Monday jobs and had forgot about it by the evening. You can guess how surprised we were to open the door and find them back in the village again when the weather was cold, wet, miserable and we had been huddled in front of the log burner keeping toasty warm. We hauled them in out of the cold as it was definitely not building weather and welcomed them back after such a long time away!

Jean-Luc and France had booked an apartment in the village and planned to see the Architect, organise tiles, windows and doors and spend a week catching up with all the backlog which had accumulated because France had broken her ankle in the summer and they had not been able to get back to Crete all last year. After a bit of a late night where we toasted the New Year, the success of their building project and many other things, I was still abed when they turned up first thing the next morning. Their rented apartment had no heating, no hot water, a faulty loo and a fridge which did not work so they asked if they could come and stay with us! HELP! I hastily leapt upstairs to clear away towels, plastic sheeting and so on which had been arranged under the leaky bits of roof and looked for clean bedding, towels and hot water bottles. All the while I was manically chasing about, I was praying that the rain would stop and the roof would stay watertight for however long their stay lasted.

AND … magically, in spite of days and days of rain, our peculiar old roof did just that. They left after several days of intensive discussions about the European economy, the Armenian Church, their re-evaluation of what they would need to make their house cosy and warm in a Cretan winter, discussions about books, metaphysical ideas, intrinsic good of certain foodstuffs and an amused observation on our part about how long it takes two people to hog a bathroom in the morning!!! However, they left us with an enormous round cheese from the local dairy and we were able to procure 10 k of lemons which they wanted to take back to France with them along with a couple of bottles of raki and local wine which is good stuff and not at all expensive. I don't think that K and I will ever make a living as hoteliers but it did do a lot for 'entente cordiale'. They drove off in a heavy downpour which lasted all night and the roof only began to leak again the following morning when they were safely on the ferry – so we are hoping for some strong wind and sunshine to dry us out again before the arrival of our next winter visitor! Prayer works!

We were able to commiserate over learning Greek which is not at all easy. It had been good to laugh at our collective observation that the Greek alphabet is most unfairly NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, missing out the letter B (beta = V, whilst B is made up of a combination of M+P [written as pi]) and the letter C does not exist but (using kappa, K) is listed somewhere further on. Z comes after E and the alphabet incorporates a nasty collection of epsilons, upsilons, mi, ni, xi, fi, chi, psi – surely surplus to requirements along with big O's and little o's (omega and omicron)... can't resist lapsing into the four candles sketch… got any 0's ? Jean-Luc kindly left a French Tutorial book entitled 'le grec sans peine' which inexplicably made the whole brain cudgelling issue a bit less like hitting our heads against a brick wall. So now we seem to be learning Greek and French at the same time and have our work cut out! We just hope J.-L. and F. don't give us a test when they return to Crete in March. 

  

GYMNASTIKI

No, we're not training for the Olympics; gymnastiki is the word for exercise in Greek and we have been in sore need of stretching our legs and getting out and about in an unusually wet Cretan winter.

Accordingly, we jumped into the car at the weekend to meet up for a CIC 'short walk' and met up with some Dutch friends en route. (We have never quite trusted this description since the 14k 'short' flower walk which took place last Easter! Some of the organised walks in Crete are for mountaineers only!) Together we drove to the South of the Island where the sun seemed to be shining – always about a mile or two in front of us. However, we reached the mustering point at Asomatos where we planned to visit a small museum and then plot a downhill path towards Plakias and the seaside where we could see the sun shining brightly over a calm sea. We kept checking the sky which promised everything – dark cloud, rain showers, odd patches of blue sky, sunshine and Scotch mist - and wondered what would be the best plan for the day. In the near distance, as we waited for everyone else to arrive, K and I were entranced to see a little girl (resembling our daughter Kate aged 9 or 10) sprinting along a small track with her hair flowing out behind her as she tried to catch up with a run-away baby lamb and then watched as a second baby lamb chased her – silent movie style - down the path. At the head of the track, a flock of sheep were being moved to new grazing and there were obviously a couple of escapees! We were concerned that she seemed to catch up with one lamb but miss the other, but – no a few minutes later she reappeared after a count up (definitely an Olympic sprinter in the making) chasing back along the path at top speed and returning with a wriggly baby lamb in her arms to join the flock.

The museum was fascinating. It had been the collection of a Greek Orthodox Priest and was now presented and organised by his son as an eclectic mix of – well – everything denoting social history for the last few centuries. The garden entrance held dozens of crystal candelabras – all now being liberally showered with raindrops – and the house was marvellous with a sort of large courtyard where lots of rooms opened into it at ground level and to terraces upstairs. One room was full of WWII memorabilia, medals, cigarette packets, shoes, toys, ecclesiastical furniture and robes, another room full of farming implements, another stacked with kitchen utensils, an office full of old desk sets, clocks, typewriters and walls full of pictures and certificates. I kept looking at things that I remembered using myself in the distant and not so distant past – typewriters, telephones, games, shoe styles, getting a real feeling of 'tempus fugit' – not happy to welcome the reminder that I am too a bit of a museum piece these days. There were also several items of kitchen equipment which I would have loved for my own Minoan kitchen as well as large log baskets and a plate rack! I had to satisfy myself with taking photos and noting the designs of all the home crafted things. There was a real danger of a few more croziered items around the house over the next few months!

Then, as the rain was by now tipping down, we drove down to Lefcogia passing the aforementioned flock of sheep who were now happily grazing in a field around the base of an enormous solar energy photovoltaic installation, and trooped into the village cafeneon where the villagers hospitably shuffled chairs and tables into the centre so that we could all be accommodated. We were all glad to get some hot coffee inside us and to have been so decisively relieved of the country walk. However, when we emerged from the coffee shop, the sun had come out and we drove the short distance to Plakias and walked along the shore line in the tentative sun shine and around the back streets to see as much as we could (and to get as much exercise as was possible). We found a great place for lunch and caught up with everyone's news. Discussion ranged on learning Greek, roofing compounds and theory, European economy, our Dutch friends' upcoming trip to South America, a form of central heating which runs on fuel made from olive stones (must find out more about that one) and lots of silly jokes which had an international flavour. It was so lovely to get out and about – but we missed out on the exercise!

On Wednesday, we tried a second attempt at getting much needed exercise and went out while the sun shone down to Panormo to do a bit of beach combing. We were not surprised to find that not a piece of driftwood remained on the beach – unlike last year when it was all left until March and when we collected nearly all of it. Times are obviously much harder for Greeks, as finances are beginning to bite badly this year, and it is clear that energy conservation and sustainability are uppermost in everybody's minds.

A few CIC members met in Rethymnon on Thursday for a guided archaeological walk around the Old Town. Ioanna (Joanna), our guide had studied Archaeology at the University of Crete and took us around the familiar alleyways to take a closer look at places we had passed by 100 times without taking in the finer details. It was a wonderful history lesson; we discussed and found evidence of the legacy left by the invasion of Saracens, Venetians and their mercenaries employed from old Russia and Viking stock, two empires of Ottomans, a weird form of bureaucratic 'ethnic relocation' in 1922 after Greek independence when thousands of Muslims were sent to Syria and Egypt whilst Christian Greek peoples were forcibly repatriated to Crete and had to settle there as refugees. All these centuries of history had resulted in a fascinating evolution of building use as Roman churches were converted into Mosques, only to be changed into Greek Orthodox churches much later somehow absorbing Muslim followers within their congregations. Our last port of call was a small bookshop which we have passed on every visit to the town and 25 of us trooped through to a back room to find that one wall was a line of fountains, beautifully carved, in the midst of counters, shelves and bookstands. Out of the door (UPVC double glazed) into the back yard revealed a small Mosque and minaret, which we had seen from a distance but never managed to place before.

Learning a bit more captured our imagination and it was good that our knowledgeable guide had brought all these dusty old stones and carvings to life.  We all wanted to go home and get on with our homework!

HEAVEN'S OVERTURE

Before the rain storms .......

Not much sleep to be had tonight. Well, it had to happen – didn't it? The lovely sunny break of last week has been overtaken by a new weather system bringing heavy rain for days on end. And it is now a bit like living in a cave. Our mended, sea-worthy roof has proved not to be mended or sea-worthy at all and I have been awake most of the night listening to rain pouring from the water spout outside and other dripping noises all suspiciously closer to home which required investigation. A trip upstairs with whatever buckets and bowls I could find, a shift of furniture … and a nice hot cup of tea have woken me up completely. Now, I am listening to an orchestra of sound as drips fall from various heights into glass and plastic containers (Dunk, plonk, dunk, dunk pling) and the waterfall into the concrete yard at the back of the house produce a soundtrack which is hardly conducive to a good night's sleep. (And, several hours later it is still raining!)

Fortunately, the first night of rain turned out to be the worst. We have had quite a number of showers and downfalls since then but on those occasions, the roof did not leak and in any case, the bowls and buckets did not collect very much at all. The ancient roof is mystifying but we have heard of some magic roofing compound which seems to have worked on many of our friends' ancient roofs so that will be the next thing to try! We need a spell of fine weather first before we can get access! For five days the range of high mountains has disappeared completely into grey gloom and, if you did not know the landscape well, you would not know of their existence. There were also a number of problems with the trip-switch to our electricity supply but more about that later.

The view committed to memory for next watercolour landscape

We did manage to get a decent walk in last weekend. However, the first unexpectedly strenuous task was managing to get our wellies on. (I am sure it was never so troublesome when we were younger – what happened?) Then we waddled self-consciously in our obviously so-new gumboots down the alley way, across the stream and walked up the path which we can see from our house. Someone has a lovely smallholding there with healthy looking goats, chickens and geese and we paused to take note of how well cared for they seemed to be. We were barked at by several troupes of ferocious dogs and, as we climbed higher, we were confronted by a horrible looking canine tied up next to some pig houses. Discretion being the better part of valour – we promptly decided to retrace our steps and jumped in every puddle we could to dirty our boots a bit on the way down the path. Then we walked around the base of the escarpment to the other side where there is a steep track past a slate cliff up to an old football pitch, across an olive grove to the old dry stone base of a deserted windmill. From here is a really good view of the village from the far side of the valley. The sun that day was good enough to take some photos and commit the view to memory. The air was clear, the view of the mountain was unfettered by clouds and we both said almost simultaneously … “Wouldn't this be a great place for a picnic …?” (Cretans would think we were crazy to have a meal in such an out of the way place!)

The old windmill

So, you've guessed it – there is not a lot going on; we have a CIC country walk planned down in the south of the island finishing in Plakias on Sunday (and I am mentally sorting out foul weather gear) which will be good for us. Kimon is grumbling about 'organised fun' but we need to escape for at least a day to combat accumulated cabin fever this week. Our old stone house is very cosy when the log burner is going but we realise that our log pile has taken a bit of a beating; we probably will have to order another stack of logs to keep the house warm into February and there is no point in stinting on this. We have been trying to get as many inside jobs done as possible, but these are mostly chores and I have spent a lot of time knitting jumpers or sorting out landscapes from my old sketchbooks which might be worked up into a few greetings cards while K has been chopping wood and trying to keep everything under cover.

Christmas came at last - in spite of the weather!

And … at last, the Cretan post came good and delivered the longed-for parcel from Australia this week with a full photo album marking the first 5 months of our latest grandson as an Aussie but now having adopted Kiwi citizenship in preparation for their return to Auckland. Yippee! We were so glad that the pictures reached us safely.

Kimon writes: “Consider; we do not have a letter-box, so we found our post left on the back window of the car outside, beneath the wiper blade – this by our friendly lady from the kafeneon (Aggeliki), to where the post is delivered … and …. what a relief that the electrics seem to be OK now. We had seven “trip-outs” on the fuse board the other morning. Then the main meter trip blew – and had to press the red button, “like a nervous man” in a howling gale and lashing rain (K, that is, in now well-muddied gum boots and wet clothes).

It's real life Croziers – but not as you know it!!!

MAGIC IN THE AIR

You know those days near the end of winter, when the bright sunshine and magic in the air fool you into thinking that the dark days are over and Spring is here. Then a few days later, the snow and winds return and you are back in the midst of winter again? Well, we had a couple of those magical days this week when the sun shone, the birds sang and the air shimmered with warmth and promise. We drove to Bali yesterday to take a walk around the four coves there – up and down the rocky headlands and enjoying every view with bright yellow flowers reflecting the sun and lighting up the fields and hedgerows wherever we went.

The water is so clear you can hardly see the message in a bottle

On Wednesday 4 January, we woke to another sunny morning and decided promptly that it was warmer out of the house than in … therefore imperative to go out for a spell. The track to our village cove is not that easy to find and having done a bit of shopping and asking directions we nudged our way through all the variously parked cars in the alleyways to get on the right track for the beach. The road winds up and down (but mainly up hill) over big bumps and puddles until you are at the top of tall cliffs looking down and down a slippery dirt track which hairpins a few times to a tiny cove with a pebbly beach. If you wanted a swim, it would be way too much of a hassle to get there, but we had other plans.

Bearing in mind our adventures at Geropotamos beach a month or so back, we wisely left the car at the top of the incline and Kimon stumped down to the beach with his fishing gear while I set up a comfy chair, paintbox and sketchbook at the top looking out to the blue horizon. It was WONDERFUL in the warm sun, with a very calm sea lapping round the rocks and onto the pebbles. A brilliant way to spend an hour or two and the end results were not works of art – but we just soaked it all up while we had the chance. Just as we were leaving, a small yacht wound round the headland trailing a dinghy behind it making its way to Panormo. It was the only sign of other people around that we had seen all morning.

The slippery path down to the Cove ...

On our return, the Postman had been and we had a lovely parcel to open from our son which had taken quite a long time to get to Crete along with a few Christmas cards. I had often noticed that the Postman carried a large leather briefcase wherever he went and was fascinated to see that several people gave Mikalis the Postie, money to pay their bills and he was able to cash cheques for them. Postmen in Crete are obviously people in a position of absolute trust - and we are confident that our parcels will all get to us eventually. We notice that packets and parcels are put on buses and left at tavernas and cafeneons, picked up by other people and delivered to the next point. No one would dream of interfering with them and they always seem to arrive sooner or later. We have a feeling that these longed for items will be arriving throughout January – which makes New Year all the more interesting and enjoyable.

New Year at the Melody Garden

New Year itself was spent in Rethymnon and it poured with rain all night long. The Mayor had already cancelled having any fireworks in the town square for New Year because of the austerity measures and so it was a relief to find ourselves at a nice warm, dry restaurant called the Melody Garden with a good Greek music group and great food. The part of the taverna where we sat was in the cellars a little away from too much noise and we really enjoyed the meal, watching Greek families celebrating and even a little dancing in the minimal space available. New Year came and went, Kimon put a piece of charcoal over Anna's doorway to signify 'first footing'.

Epiphany is a big day in the Greek calendar when the priests and bishops come down to the water's edge to bless the waters – salt and fresh - all of which play a huge part in the livelihood of Crete. We hear that the Priests throw a Cross into the water and then several boys dive into the water to retrieve it.  As soon as it has been rescued there is the year's blessing upon the water, the lake, river or sea wherever the event takes place. It would be good if this lovely fine weather lasts until then if only for the swimmers' sake! K and I plan to go to Panormo harbour to see it happen this year before we take all our Christmas decorations down and clean the house from top to bottom.

2011 was a bit gloomy in terms of world news; so we hope that 2012 will be much more settled, more peaceful, bringing good health, good times and enough good things to enjoy and share around.

KALI CHRONIA! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The enormous cauliflower was a New Year gift from our neighbour!

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS IN CRETE

With all the ingredients that made up Christmas this year – far away from most of the family, poor weather and meagre funds to spend on presents – it could have been a miserable time but wasn't!

First of all, we took our mulled wine down to the cafeneon on Christmas Eve as a little Christmas warm up for our kind friends there and although they were not used to wine which did not accompany a meal, they were reassured when I served it in small coffee cups and it came with a tray of cake and mince pies. However, they could not accept even this tiny offering without giving back a bag of oranges and a bag of eggs. How they would have coped with a full-blown Christmas present is difficult to say because I came to the conclusion that it would just make things even more difficult – so I still have a bag of small items bought at the Christmas Bazaar to think about later.

I asked about the start time of the service in the village church on Christmas morning. They were a little vague about this – Angeliki said 7.00 a.m., Costas said 8.00 a.m. (or when the bell rings (“… hear it not Duncan ...”) – so when the Church bell started to ring at 7.10 a.m. I scrambled into clothes and rushed up to church thinking that it all would be happening already. I was the only person in the congregation and had my pick of chairs so sat at the back to see what would happen. Over the next THREE HOURS people started to arrive (largely when they felt like it) lit candles, kissed icons, greeted one another, spoke on mobile phones, stood up and sat down a lot while one, two and then three people chanted from books at the front. Every so often the priest appeared from behind the screen and did something for a minute or two and then disappeared again where from the “noises off” I began to wonder if he was looking for a screwdriver at the bottom of a very full metal tool box. Also, the red damask curtain over the doorway in the front iconostasis kept twitching and being poked from the back and it reminded me of a school play when there were lots of children on a stage waiting to start – except it was only puppet theatre size. You will gather from this that I was way out of my comfort zone and trying to piece together a liturgy from the odd snatches of words that I could hear – kyrie eleison, cosmos, Jesu, Christos and Alleluia! Feeling very much as if I was in the land of C S Lewis (ie. Narnia when it was always winter and never Christmas), it was very cheering when Father Christmas arrived in the guise of the priest who was now wearing a long red cape and carrying an incense burner to which lots of sleigh bells had been attached. (that was what the toolbox sounds had been all about) !  Reassuring sounds of Amins, amen, Amin started to happen and the chanters at the front snapped all the books shut and ladies began to pick up their enormous handbags. Alleluia indeed – we had friends arriving for lunch and I had been there, trapped behind all the late arrivals for hours, thinking that I could easily slip out when there was a natural break … all my assumptions had been WRONG! I really did miss the good of C of E, a few old fashioned carols, a few quiet moments for my own prayers and the familiar lessons of the nativity – although Radio 4 Carols from Cambridge had been a lovely start to Christmas the day before.

The dog's loved cheese straws!

Puppy-dog found a nice spot close to the fire

The next ingredients to our Christmas pudding were the arrival of Anna with a lovely fresh turkey to get quickly in the oven, and Nigel and Maria with a box of hard-to-come-by crackers, mountains of bags and bundles and their three dogs. Our friends had hoped to leave their rescue dogs with neighbours for the day but with a new – not yet house trained puppy – this had not been possible. So with a few power cuts, a kitchen full of doggies sniffing tantalising smells of turkey cooking and a puppy who kept wanting to stand on our feet while we were wielding pans of hot stuff – it could have been a disaster but somehow wasn't. The dogs soon settled down, we did play all our silly games, had a fantastic turkey dinner and lots of good cheer.

We were delighted with our "loo warming" present!

Our friends are very creative and brought several home made items, good ideas and kept us laughing while Anna firmly insisted that she did not want to join in the game and then kept joining in anyway, despite all her protests. It all worked very well and not a TV set in sight! The best idea was a jam jar full of extra one line cracker jokes which Nigel had noted down over the previous few months and put on slips of paper to share at the table. 10 out of 10 for creative ideas! Maria kept every scrap of cracker and wrapping paper to re-use for collages, paper sculpture and origami artwork. She is sought out for her handiwork where they live and makes a small living from making fine crochet, needlework and woven items also giving lessons from time to time. It is great to spend time discussing art and crafty things with Maria and a real shame that they live such a distance from us.

Extra Christmas Cracker jokes were a good idea!

Sadly everyone had to leave quite early in the morning and left us with a house full of food which we are trying to either eat, share or conserve in some way or another! We have had lots of skype contacts with family in the UK and Oceania – a great comfort in the depths of winter and a wonder to catch glimpses of their hot summer. We are off now to get some logs in and keep the home fires burning for the next few days. Chronia Polla and God bless us one and all!

GETTING READY FOR CRETAN CHRISTMAS

K and I had always understood that Christmas in Crete was far overshadowed by the celebration of Greek Easter, but we have been surprised to see all the shops decorating their windows beautifully with very artistic displays and the odd snatch of a Christmas carol at one or two street corners. There were many more Christmas Cribs around than in the UK and so we are confident that the Cretans haven't completely forgotten about the child born in a manger and what it was all about in the first place. We thought it would be interesting to discover the local traditions and, for our part make some mulled wine and mince pies to take round to our neighbours Costas and Angeliki at the cafeneon on Christmas Eve either before or after the village church service and hope that this will be acceptable.

As Christmas trees do not grow on the island, all the trees we have seen are artificial imports and therefore very expensive. However, when we were pollarding our tree at the front of the house earlier in the autumn to give Angeliki's goats some welcome greenstuff, one of the lower limbs did have a rather Xmas tree type shape – so we took off the leaves, put it on one side and thought about how we could use it instead.

It looks OK from a distance!

The result was slightly in the style of Salvador Dali but if you stand at the right point in the living room and close one eye – it does look very festive. Along with the gifts of oranges, cinnamon sticks, cloves and nutmeg, we have enough to make the house look pretty and will not go short of vitamin C over the festive period.

Looking West with the White Mountains far away on the horizon

December weather is very warm in Crete but I have learned that it is warm outside and cold inside the house. On Sunday, we noticed that there were a lot of strange people in the village making their way to the village church and we wondered if this was a special Greek Orthodox festival. The weather was sharp and cold when we got up, but the sun shone strongly and we thought we would explore the olive groves and vineyards beyond the village and find out whether we could walk down to the sea. Our path took us up hill all the way and small birds with songs like skylarks darted in and out of the long grasses as we made our way through farmland, olive trees, heathland and rocky slopes for a good long walk. A flock of sheep hopefully made their way over to us expecting that we would bring them feed – but soon realised that we were not their owners and turned away again. We kept climbing up and up until we could see a magnificent view in all directions. Blue, calm sea in one direction, Mount Psiloritis to the South covered with a silky sheen of fresh snow and ice, the White Mountains to the West and a rumpled counter pane of fields, villages, orchards and olive groves closer to us. With all the thick layers I had donned in the morning, I was boiling hot and had to take off coats and jumpers until we got home and went indoors again. 

We were too high up to reach the beach

Kimon was ready to go back!

Sadly, we learned that the people going to church were attending the funeral of our friend Nikos' son-in-law, which means that his daughter Georgia has been widowed early in life with young adult children. We had no idea and were grappling with words when Nikos, visibly shaken, came round to see us later on. It is at times like this when not having the necessary Greek words is a real burden and shows me that I have to try much harder to learn. I ended up doing the only thing I could think of by baking a cake to show our feelings, even if we could not articulate them.

With the financial troubles and austerity measures which have now been imposed, things have changed a lot during the year we have been in Greece, Many of their government departments are being completely shaken up and we have so much more to learn. However, we realise that most Greeks are struggling to understand all the new systems which are being put into place – so we are not alone and will have to puzzle it all out together.

We are planning to have friends to stay over Christmas weekend and plan to gather around the Log Burner here at home, with good traditional fare and home made gifts, silly board games and Skype on all day to catch various children in various parts of the world. Cretans have a celebration dinner of pork on Christmas Eve. We have learned from our village friends that simple gifts of food and friendship are best and have surprised many of our friends by sharing big bags of oranges, lemons and olive oil which are so much more scarce and expensive in the towns. We swapped oranges for broccoli during the week and wonder if this may be one of the ways forward as people's belts are having to get tighter. We think that it was a lesson learned well here in the chequered history of the island which has been occupied by so many different forces over the centuries - that everything had to be tended and grown for sharing – and it seems to have become a long term tradition. What better way to encourage true health, wealth and happiness.

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR.

DECEMBER IN CRETE or PLUMBING THE DEPTHS

Christmas items for sale from a local school

Last year when I was still working in London and travelling back and forth to work on the train, my sister in law kept phoning us up from Crete to tell us how wonderful the weather was and how they were all still swimming because it was so hot. As we were falling over on the ice in England and freezing on station platforms at unearthly times of the day and night, all this news was absolutely sickening and we kept begging her to stop.

With this in mind,  I won't go on too much about the beautiful days we have had for the last few weeks and how we keep pinching ourselves and reminding ourselves that it is December already and how will we get used to sunshine at Christmas time.  Where did this year go?

It has been a very topsy-turvy month for the Croziers altogether. First of all, we noticed that a small puddle on the bathroom floor which we thought just appeared after a shower onto the floor tiles and was not anything to worry about.  As time went on, we realised that it was a more serious leak and that a pipe must be broken somewhere. Sadly "Hunt-the-Pipe" could not take place without dismantling the entire bathroom – which was on our list of things to do – but not yet a while due to financial constraints. However, we realised that the work had be be brought forward and our friendly builder turned up with trailers, concrete mixers, picks and shovels and took the whole room apart - floor, walls and ceiling. 

We were actually very glad to see the back of the faded rose pink wall and floor tiles and set off to choose a new colour scheme. The builder switched round everything to give much more space, we have nice lights, mirror, storage, heater and no intriguing port hole into the shed (!) Check out before and after photos below (and sorry to be so boring but in a small village this sort of thing is hugely exciting and the workmen kept our neighbours entertained for 10 days).

Chania Waterfront 3rd Dec

As we had no working bathroom, we spent the time as guests of K's sister in the bright lights of Rethymnon and I had the chance to do Christmas shopping and prepare for the Annual CIC Christmas Bazaar in Chania which takes place every year to raise a lot of money for local charities. What a production! There were 60-70 stalls rented by local traders and some came even from Athens to sell their wares. Ceramics, textiles, jewellery, woodwork, home made food, drinks and preserves, soaps, decorations, metalwork – loads and loads to look at and charity raffle stalls run by CIC members. K and I manned the Bottle Stall – ably assisted by other members but the star attraction on our stall were the volunteers from the local Red Cross who turned up in their uniforms, donned Santa Hats and really got us better organised. If nothing else, I have learned the dos and don'ts of running a tombola because it is much more tricky than you think – especially if the event has to last over two days and you have to find some way of not running out of bottles!

The local Red Cross turned up and raffle ticket sales picked up!

The quality of entertainment was amazing with a school choir singing Greek and English carols, a jazz singer, a children's entertainer who did magic and all sorts of clever juggling tricks and then a brilliant circus performer who played loads of musical instruments and sang, wire walked, unicycled around between all the stalls and was astoundingly good. All this while, there were two kitchens – one inside and one outside providing chilli, mulled wine, sausages, teas and coffees etc. We believe that the bazaar raised over 12,000 Euros for local charities which was very impressive in these hard times.

Setting up the stalls in the old Customs House

Look Soph - they even had a Sindy Doll Boutique!!!!!

We were exhausted when it was over and needed a few days to unwind which was unfortunate because there was a lecture in Rethymnon on Archaeology a couple of days later with intricate catering arrangements including a buffet lunch which seemed to be slightly beyond the capabilities of the place where the event had been held but was enjoyable all the same. Then, once this was over, we drove back to the village to see what state the bathroom was in. Of course it was a vast improvement but there was builders dust and mess which had spread throughout the house and it needed sweeping, scrubbing and mopping from top to bottom. Every shelf and every cupboard! So today has been Cleaning Day One and tomorrow will be Cleaning Day Two!! Enough for now – we are absolutely flaked out!

BEFORE .......

AFTER!